The Raw Story uncovered a sermon that Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson gave in March in which he spends 10 minutes lecturing his audience about how women have destroyed America. Lee is a radical pastor who says that allowing women to vote was “one of the greatest mistakes that America made.”

“Look at every place where a women is in control,” said Peterson. “You see nothing but confusion. There’s no good in it at all, none.”

Peterson’s sermon began with comments about Sandra Fluke, doubling down on Rush Limbaugh’s slut remarks. But halfway through his speech, he kicked the hate into another gear:

PETERSON: “I think that one of the greatest mistakes that America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote. We should have never turned that over to women.”

“It was a big mistake…these women are voting in the wrong people. They’re voting in people who are evil, who agree with them…Men in the good old days understood the nature of the women, they were not afraid to deal with them.”

“Wherever women are taking over, evil reigns.”

Amazingly, just last week, Sean Hannity, who sits on the board of Peterson’s group BOND: Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny, invited him to sit on his Great American Panel once again to discuss the president’s comments on the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden.

But the conversation never quite made it that far. Fellow panelist Kirsten Powers, a Fox News columnist and political analyst, abandoned the segment to hit back against Peterson and his anti-women views, over the objections of Hannity who wanted to spend his time attacking President Obama.

For two minutes, Powers and Peterson exchanged barbs while Hannity and the third panelist, Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), sat quietly on the sidelines. Powers told Hannity that she had no idea Peterson would be a guest on the show alongside her, and invited him to repudiate Peterson’s remarks (he declined).

Peterson has made appearances on Fox News for years, fielding frequent invites from Hannity in particular despite Peterson’s history of hateful comments. And it’s not like Hannity had no warning. Peterson has previously said he “thank[s] God for slavery, because had it not, the blacks that are here would have been stuck in Africa.” He also called the victims of Hurricane Katrina “welfare-pampered,” “lazy,” and “immoral.”

And while Powers was rightfully outraged at Fox News’ decision to offer Lee a national platform, Hannity was unapologetic, quickly shutting down the spat and pivoting to his usual agenda of attacking the president.

Update

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This post originally misidentified Jesse Lee Patterson as a Fox News “contributor.” A spokeswoman for the network informed ThinkProgress: “Peterson is not an FNC contributor nor has he ever been, but rather a guest only.” We apologize for the error.

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